Man convicted, sentenced for role in deadly armed robbery

Facing a host of charges and halfway to the prison door after confessing to an active role in a violent armed robbery where three people were shot, 22-year-old Oneil Pedley made two jaw-dropping moves at his trial Thursday.

First, Pedley testified that he had not entered the Picasso's Pizza restaurant in 2007 armed with two guns and jumped on the counter to bat down a surveillance camera, even though he had previously confessed he had done that to Delray Beach Detective Gene Sapino. And the prosecutor had a print from Pedley's Nike Air sneaker that was lifted from the counter at the Delray Beach eatery.

Then, with his four-day trial coming to close, Pedley decided to fire his lawyer of three years, veteran defense attorney Robert Gershman. Gershman had not questioned Pedley when he testified, as a Florida Bar rule requires of lawyers who believe their client is lying.

"Oneil, why you doing that?" his mother, Rita Pedley, called out from the courtroom gallery, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Pedley, of Miami, gave his own closing argument to jurors who would weigh the attempted first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery charges against him, all punishable by life in prison.

For 25 minutes, Pedley stood talking about himself in the third person, saying that he had no intent to rob anyone, that he had no idea his friend, Kendrick Silver, also charged in the case, had an AR-15 assault rifle, and that the evidence presented by prosecutor Judith Arco only proved what she was arguing.

And yet his potential was on display — pronouncing all the legal terms correctly, reading well, seemingly confident in public speaking.

Pedley said he had lied to the detective about his role to deflect blame from Silver.

"He did not know of the punishment or the crime he was getting himself involved in," he said of himself.

"He's very casual in his dishonesty," Arco told jurors in her closing argument. "It just comes out … and tells you what kind of person he is … just to look at you and lie."

After asking to hear Pedley's confession one more time, jurors swiftly reached their verdict.

Guilty.

Circuit Judge Karen Miller immediately asked Pedley if it seemed a good idea to rehire his attorney for his sentencing.

"Yes, ma'am," Pedley answered, shifting back to the client chair. Gershman opened his file box and took up his post again, arguing that the verdict was inconsistent with the evidence and that the convictions on some of the charges did not mandate the life sentences Arco was seeking.

Pedley spoke on his own behalf again, this time with his voice shaking, as he asked the judge for leniency, saying he had never been in trouble before.

Pedley also is charged with first-degree murder and faces a possible death penalty in Miami-Dade County.

So even with a lawyer, leniency seemed out of the question.

Life in prison, four times over, Miller swiftly decided.

Pedley was handcuffed and fingerprinted and taken away by deputies — but not before talking with his lawyer one last time.